About Me

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my paternal grandmother’s country home. This special lady taught me the importance of hard work. Every summer, I worked alongside her in her large, vegetable garden. Unfortunately, my grandmother’s health started to deteriorate a few years ago. However, this spunky woman wanted to continue living by herself at her home.
To keep her safe, my grandmother’s children purchased some medical equipment and supplies for her. They bought a hospital bed, a bed pan, an oxygen tank, and a walker for her. On this blog, I hope you will discover the types of medical equipment and supplies that can help your elderly loved one stay safe and independent.

Preparing A Pharmaceutical Sample For Testing

Modern pharmaceutical drugs play an important role in helping to treat and prevent illness. In order to ensure that these medications are able to help patients without creating additional problems, their purity and performance must be guaranteed. This is done through a process of rigorous testing.

Certified reference materials are sets of standardized procedures and products that ensure proper testing. These standards include proper protocol for preparing a pharmaceutical sample for testing.

Here are three steps to keep in mind when testing pharmaceuticals in a laboratory setting to ensure you are in compliance with the certified reference materials (CRMs) governing the drug.

1. Identify the types of impurities you are testing for.

As you prepare your pharmaceutical samples for testing, it can be beneficial to bear in mind the types of impurities you will be testing for. Many CRMs come in liquid form and can create a chemical reaction when coming into contact with specified contaminants.

Using these types of CRMs is known as chemical synthesis, and requires careful handling and preparation of the medication being tested to ensure contaminants aren't inadvertently introduced into the specimen.

2. Create a homogeneous sample material.

Since you want the sample you are working with to be as uniform as possible, it's critical that you take the time to create a homogeneous sample prior to testing. This homogenization is typically accomplished by grinding the medication into a fine powder prior to introducing any CRMs that will test for impurities.

It's important that you don't grind the sample medication too fine, since this could permanently alter some of the proteins within the medication and affect your results. Follow protocol when engaging in homogenization to ensure the most accurate test results.

3. Use only CRMs with certified stability.

If you test large quantities of pharmaceutical drugs in your laboratory, it can be cost effective to purchase CRM solutions in bulk. This requires that the CRMs not in immediate use be stored.

To ensure that the storage process doesn't compromise the CRMs ability to produce accurate test results, you should invest in CRM with certified stability. Sourcing a stable CRM is a critical part of the sample preparation process, and can be critical to obtaining the most accurate results possible when testing a medication for impurities.

Understanding the critical role that sample preparation plays when using CRMs to test the quality and effectiveness of a pharmaceutical drug will allow you to more accurately prepare your samples for testing in the future.